The present invention relates to an arrangement for orienting and conveying elongated objects in general, and more particularly to an arrangement for orienting and conveying barrels of tampon inserters.
In recent years, catamenial tampons have been gaining an increasing degree of popularity, especially among active women, as superior and more convenient substitutes for customary sanitary napkins. One reason for this is that they are imperceptible through garments, no matter how tight these garments may be. Another reason may be that, if properly used, they give protection against the soiling of the garment or underwear, which is superior to that afforded by the santiary napkins.
The tampons may be acquired as such, and they may be introduced manually without resorting to the use of any auxiliary devices. However, this method of introduction is yielding, in an ever-increasing manner, to the use of tampon inserters, which are usually constructed as cylinder-and-piston, or telescoping, assemblies, and which are introduced with the respective tampon accommodated therein, whereupon the tampon is expelled therefrom and the empty tampon inserter is withdrawn.
While it is possible to so construct a tampon inserter as to be reuseable over and over again, the current trend is toward the use of disposable tampon inserters which serve as protectors for the tampons during their handling at the manufacturing plant, such as packaging, and during the transportation and handling prior to actual use. After the tampon accommodated in the respective tampon inserter has been expelled therefrom, the tampon inserter is discarded.
For the tampon inserter to be able to act as a protector, and to facilitate the introduction of the tampon inserter, it is already known, for instance, from the U.S. Pat. No. 3,895,634 to give the leading end portion thereof a hemispherical configuration. This reduces if not eliminates the danger of injury and existence of an unpleasant feeling during the introduction.
There are also already known various machines for making the tampons, attaching withdrawal strings thereto, assembling the components of the tampon inserters, introducing the tampons into the tampon inserters, and closing the leading ends of the tampon inserters after the introduction of the tampons thereinto. However, experience has shown that the existing machinery operates at a rather slow pace and in a very cumbersome manner, which increases the manufacturing cost of the final articles both in terms of capital investment and labor costs, which necessarily reflects itself in the price of the final article.